Life can get dark or be roaring around you and the journal can allow you a lay-by where you can pull in. These writing prompts may sometimes be useful.

1. PEOPLE: Write down the names of three people who are important to you now - one is in your family, one is an acquaintance, one you have never met. Imagine them. How are they dressed, where are there and what are they doing? How do you know how they are feeling? When they speak, what do they say to you? What would you wish to say to them? You have a gift for them - what is it?

2. EVENTS: Write down three world-wide news events which you know of? How have you heard of these events? Whose stories are being told - and what more would you like to know? Find a way in which any one of them resonates with events in your own life. Write.

3. SPACES: Where do you become most creative? What is the environment which best allows your creative self to flourish? Describe your idea of a perfect creative space.Then list the steps (however small or big) you need to take to create this out of your current environment. What can you do right now?

4. YOUR HOUSE: In Journal to the Self Kathleen Adams suggests investigating your house as if you were a private detective. Let the detective wander through your creative space observing and making notes. From the evidence of the notes, write a character sketch of the person who occupies that space: what personality traits can be deduced? What physical characteristics are suggested? What are the likes/dislikes of this person?

5. FOOD: Do you turn towards or away from food when you are stressed or depressed? Are there comfort foods you turn to?

What are the dishes that represent holiday celebrations, eg Eid, Christmas or other celebration for you? Are they from your childhood or introduced later? How has this changed over time?

Who is the better cook, you or your mother (or the person who cooked for you in childhood)? What did you learn from them? What do you remember? Write an unsent letter to express your feelings about this.

6. LANDSCAPE and MEMORY: Think about the spring landscapes of your childhood. Choose one which has a particular resonance for you right now. Think about how old you were when you inhabited it (however briefly – perhaps a holiday place, perhaps your home). Who else was there?Write about it in the 1st person, present tense, use the language of the senses to evoke your experience of it.Read it through and write a few sentences of feedback (e.g. When I read this I notice…..When I read this I feel….. )What does that place have in common with where you are now?

7. WINTER LANDSCAPE: Think about the winter landscapes that you know. List them as you think of them. Describe the one you can see with your outer or inner eye. Is it in front of you? Is it a memory? How do you relate to it? How far away are you?

8. GRATITUDE: Write a list of things about your life that you feel grateful for. Try to give particular details which may resonate with and/or illuminate others' experience. Choose one to write about in the form of a praise poem, enumerating as many features, manifestations, causes, consequences or instances as you can.

9. FEELINGS: List the feelings/emotions you have had in the last 24 hours - stick first to quick labels - abstract nouns or phrases before you unpick them. Map them or arrange them in different ways - eg in the order that you felt them, in the strength that you felt them, in the length of time that these feelings persisted, in their surprise or familiarity, in how much you shared them, in how unashamed or easy you are with them, in how much you think others are likely to have felt the same in similar situations. Now choose one and personify it - feed it, clothe it and find out where it lives and works.

10. OBJECTS: List 10-20 objects you can see/hear/touch in the place where you are writing. Choose one to meditate on, thinking of how it was made - by whom and why - how it came to be here, the people's lives it has touched and what its future may involve. As you write, let the object take on an attitude of its own, listen to it and let it speak. It may have thoughts about you, as well as the other objects on your list.